Where mobile telephones were perhaps viewed by many as a luxury when first introduced into the marketplace, they are today viewed by our society as very important, convenient, and useful tools. A great number of people now carry their mobile devices with them wherever they go. This popularity of wireless communication has spawned a multitude of new wireless systems, devices, protocols, etc. Consumer demand for advanced wireless functions and capabilities has also fueled a wide range of technological advances in the utility and capabilities of wireless devices. Wireless/mobile devices not only allow voice communication, but also facilitate messaging, multimedia communications, e-mail, Internet browsing, and access to a wide range of wireless applications and services, and include devices capable of capturing digital images and reading/decoding machine-readable indicia.
Barcodes are well known in the art and have been in use for several recent decades. Though there have been some changes in barcodes since their inception (e.g., one-dimensional versus two-dimensional, etc.), there have been noticeable advancements in the way barcodes are read and processed. Generally, there are three types of barcode readers in use: scanner or laser based, light-emitting diode (LED) based and camera based. With the proliferation of mobile phones that are equipped with digital cameras, several mobile phone-based barcode reader concepts have emerged. Furthermore, machine-readable indicia other than barcodes are gaining acceptance and growing in popularity. Radio frequency identification (RFID) transponder tags are one such machine-readable indicia seeing increased use because, at least in part, of their ability to contain and transfer more information than a barcode. In addition to or instead of barcode readers, mobile phones or other portable devices may be equipped with RFID readers.
One such example of a mobile phone equipped with a barcode reader can be found in European Patent Application EP 1387560, “Portable terminal device, in particular a mobile phone, for barcode reading and for taking photographs,” having as an applicant, Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, with a priority date of Jul. 24, 2002 and having a named inventor of Takeharu Muramatsu (the “Muramatsu application”). The Muramatsu application discloses a portable telephone (10) that has a camera (12) for inputting information of an image of interest, a small light (13), which emits light through the operation of ON/OFF button (21) while reading a barcode, an LCD display part (15) for displaying information, and a control part (31) including a CPU for controlling the whole device. The control part (31) switches photography modes depending on the existence of objects such as natural images or barcodes. The control part (31) recognizes a barcode when the device switches to a mode for barcode photography. Then, the device notifies a user of the results of the recognition and then performs a predetermined process based on the content of the recognition.
The Muramatsu application discloses a mobile phone equipped with a digital camera capable of reading barcodes. The phone is further equipped with a small light source that is operated manually by the user in connection with the operation of reading barcodes. The light source provides lighting for performing the reading operation. In addition, the terminal is capable of notifying the user whether the barcode reading results in a success or a failure by way of providing a sound, voice or displaying a message on a display of the mobile phone.
While camera based barcode readers generally work fine in good lighting conditions, if lighting conditions are not ideal, barcode recognition may fail. Also, when a user is using a mobile phone with a camera capable of reading barcodes, the user may not be aware whether the device has successfully read the barcode. In addition, the user might also experience difficulties when pointing and adjusting the device to the barcode in order to read the codes. The Muramatsu application describes means for overcoming some of these challenges, however, it does not satisfactorily resolve issues regarding initial alignment of the camera with the barcode and power limitations inherent in portable devices. Therefore, other means are provided by this present invention to overcome the challenges presented and improve on the means provided in the Muramatsu application.